I helped her out of her dress to find out she had on not only the prettiest lingerie, but also a corset. That stumped me only for a moment but I found the hooks on the back and undid them while she chuckled, her hands slipping inside my pirate shirt.

"You do love to gift-wrap yourself," I murmured with a grin.

"I'm a French woman; it's second-nature," Simone reminded me. "Along with perfume."

"All of which I like," I murmured, finally managing the last hook. Simone shimmied out of it and set it aside, taking a deep inhale

"Hard to breathe in a corset," she reminded me, her voice a little nervous.

"Take a few, relax," I urged her. She did but I noticed her hands kept stroking me under the shirt, and I pulled it off to give her better access. Simone definitely liked that, and let her nails trail my torso. Ticklish, but sensual too. "I'm guessing you like a fuzzy chest on a man."

"Yes," she told me. "It's playful and . . . macho. Also fun to cuddle."

I shrugged and grinned. "All yours."

That made her step closer. We kissed, going slow, swaying a little. I wanted her but I wasn't about to scare her off, and this was a good chance to build a little more trust.

It occurred to me in the back of my mind how Simone was very different from Linda. Linda had always been confident, well-aware of her own lean beauty through the years. She and I had been equal partners in a lot of ways but Simone's shyness and lush curves were new territory for me. This chance to bring out all her potential sensuality was arousing, and I felt something deep stirring within me. A protectiveness. A new kind of desire I hadn't felt before.

Simone wriggled as my hands stroked her spine; she looked like a kitten about to purr for the first time. "Ohhhh!"

"Did that hurt?"

"Nnnooo," she whispered, licking her bottom lip. "I just got little jolts down my back. Really good ones!"

I was definitely on the right track.

I gently peeled her out of her brassiere and wished there was more light; from what I could see those pretty freckles faded into smooth pale skin along her torso, and bared, the sight of those luscious breasts with their saucy nipples had me groaning a little.

"All the women in my family are . . . endowed," she confessed, as if it was something shameful.

I gave a little growl, and slid my hands under them, cupping the sweet heft of her breasts as I did so. "Gorgeous," I told her, "absolutely gorgeous."

That pleased her as did my touch; Simone arched against me, a little breathless when I kissed her throat.

"Dwayne," she murmured, wiggling a little. I backed her up to the bed and guided her down, arching over her and planting kisses from collarbones to nipples, enjoying the heat and scent of her bared body. I couldn't get enough of how satiny Simone was, or how warm. She ran her hands along my shoulders, as interested in my skin as I was in hers.

I was hard, but I'd dealt with myself well before the party so I wasn't on edge and could take my time in giving back to the woman under me. Simone shivered and propped herself up on her elbows, curls all tousled as she looked down the length of her body at me.

"Now?" she whispered anxiously. I brushed my chin against her belly button.

"No rush," I replied, nosing my way along, pressing kisses along a very faint little scar that was probably from an appendectomy. She was ticklish, giving little squeaks as I breathed in the soft scent of her skin. When I reached the ridge of her left hip I nipped it and Simone responded by tensing and tightening her grip on my shoulder.

"Hey," she protested playfully. "No biting." I loved how breathless she sounded.

"I dunno," I mock-sighed. "You seem awfully tasty to me."

Simone gave a nervous giggle. "I wouldn't know; I've never . . ." she trailed off and I hesitated, looked up along the lush contours of her body to see her embarrassed expression.

"That's a crime," I told her quietly, slipping to my knees at the edge of the bed as I ran my hands down her thighs, lightly pressing them apart. "To my way of thinking every last inch of you is lickable, minou."

Simone stared at me, her gaze bewildered. "Really?" she finally breathed. "It . . . men really do . . . that?"

It hit me then that despite what she knew of kink, she really didn't know much about lovemaking, and I was pretty sure that was because of old bastard she'd been married to. Carefully I spread my hands over her thighs, trying not to be distracted by the dark glossy curls on the sweet mound between them. I cleared my throat.

"Yes. It's one of the highlights for me," I assured her. "Hopefully for you too. Remember what you said about trust? Well it's all that and more."

Simone's fingers clutched the bedspread reflexively. "I . . . trust you," she gulped. "But I don't . . . know what to do for that. I thought you were just going to . . . you know . . . ."

"Eventually, and that will happen when both of us can't wait a minute longer," I replied, mentally cursing Hugo Hiver. He'd done a number on this gorgeous woman and I was going to right this wrong with righteous delight. I nudged her thighs wider. "In the meantime, I want to see just how beautiful you are."

"Dwaaaayne," she drew out my name and for a moment I thought she was going to refuse. I kissed each of her knees, staying patient and Simone eventually bit her lips and let me gently spread her thighs apart.

God she was gorgeous. All my fantasies didn't come anywhere close to the sight of the delicate petals of her sex, and her sweet curls framing that slick cleft. It was like an exotic night bloom, and the scent went straight through me in hard throbs of lust. I didn't think I could want anything so damned much, particularly at my age.

It was good to be wrong. I swallowed hard and managed to pull my gaze up to Simone's face. She looked so vulnerable. I slid my hands in long strokes over her thighs, widening them. "Oh you are one damn beautiful woman," I rasped, needing to make her understand. I began to lick the inside of one of her thighs and she gasped.

A good sign. I kept going, hungry for the taste of this woman and the wet flicks of my tongue along those sensitive creases on either side of her hips had Simone quivering. As gently as I could, I stroked the soft brush of her fur, and using my thumbs lightly pulled open the seam of her sex. Sweet, hot, and slick. The first long stroke of my tongue made her shudder hard.

"Mon dieu!"

I kept going, lost in the sweetness, tasting Simone, savoring the peachy tang of her pretty cleft and when I lightly circled the stiff little bud deep in those folds Simone gave a low wild cry. She began to shake, hips rocking up against my face and I kept a steady flick going with my tongue until she sagged moments later, as sweet and languid as molasses across the bedspread.

I grinned.

"C'est bon?" I asked, raising my head and laughing as Simone gave a little after-shudder, her legs wrapping around my shoulders possessively.

"Très méchant!" She purred, "Very naughty, Mister Pride!"

"But fun," I reminded her, rising up to loom over her splayed body. She looked like a sweet centerfold with her dimples and half-closed eyes.

Simone held her arms out to me. "Now," she urged me. "Please, now."

I shrugged out of my slacks and shorts, snagged one of the condoms from the nightstand and slipped it on, a little out of practice but Simone sat up and helped, her warm fingers smoothing the latex down the length of my erection.

"There seems to be a lot of you, Mr. Pride," she teased, fingers stroking the thick veins through the thin condom.

"You . . . inspire me," I replied, my voice a little hoarse at this point. Simone scooted back further across the bed and I stretched out next to her before shifting to my hands and knees over her supine form. All of me ached for her and I felt a rush of dizziness at the heat in her eyes as Simone pulled me down to her.

I kissed her deeply, shifting myself between her thighs, whispering softly not to be afraid, that I wouldn't hurt her. Simone reached down and guided me, her kisses against my throat as I thrust into her in one deep and glorious stroke.

God in heaven there's no feeling like it. The first sweet drive into a woman is as glorious as it gets in this life and Simone was maddeningly hot and slick, her cleft squeezing my prick and making me grunt. I began to stroke, trying to stay slow and gentle but she wrapped her arms and legs around me, pulling me, pushing her hips up to meet mine and we found a steady rhythm that after a while grew harder and faster as I drove myself into her. Kisses, nips and gasps were all I could manage as my body rocked with hers, the heat flaring deep under my stomach in lust-driven sparks.

I heard the shift in her breathing, the flutter of her lips and moments later the sweet pulsing squeezes that signaled her orgasm. That set me off and I growled, feeling my own surging in long pleasure drenched spasms that wracked my frame and left me arching within her with every thrust.

I tried not to collapse on her but Simone didn't seem to mind; she lay as stunned as I was, her beautiful chest pressed damply under mine, eyes closed, wet trails along her cheeks. That alarmed me and I muzzily pressed my face close to hers. "Simone? Mon ange? Did I hurt you?"

Shit. I would never forgive myself if I'd done that.

She shook her head, not opening her eyes, but her crooked grin was so deep I saw her dimples. "No. Tears of joy," she whispered, her arms tightening around my damp shoulders. "Merci, mon cher."